Day 219 of 365

2 Chr 7:1–8:18

7:1 Now when Solomon had made an end of praying, the fire came down from heaven, and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices; and the glory of the Lord filled the house.

7:2 The priests could not enter into the house of the Lord, because the glory of the Lord filled the Lord's house.

7:3 All the children of Israel looked on, when the fire came down, and the glory of the Lord was on the house; and they bowed themselves with their faces to the ground on the pavement, and worshiped, and gave thanks to the Lord, saying, "For he is good; for his loving kindness endures for ever."

7:4 Then the king and all the people offered sacrifice before the Lord.

7:5 King Solomon offered a sacrifice of twenty-two thousand head of cattle, and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the people dedicated God's house.

7:6 The priests stood, according to their positions; the Levites also with instruments of music of the Lord, which David the king had made to give thanks to the Lord, when David praised by their ministry, saying "For his loving kindness endures for ever." The priests sounded trumpets before them; and all Israel stood.

7:7 Moreover Solomon made the middle of the court holy that was before the house of the Lord; for there he offered the burnt offerings, and the fat of the peace offerings, because the bronze altar which Solomon had made was not able to receive the burnt offering, and the meal offering, and the fat.

7:8 So Solomon held the feast at that time seven days, and all Israel with him, a very great assembly, from the entrance of Hamath to the brook of Egypt.

7:9 On the eighth day they held a solemn assembly: for they kept the dedication of the altar seven days, and the feast seven days.

7:10 On the three and twentieth day of the seventh month he sent the people away to their tents, joyful and glad of heart for the goodness that the Lord had shown to David, and to Solomon, and to Israel his people.

7:11 Thus Solomon finished the house of the Lord, and the king's house: and he successfully completed all that came into Solomon's heart to make in the house of the Lord, and in his own house.

7:12 The Lord appeared to Solomon by night, and said to him, "I have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place to myself for a house of sacrifice.

7:13 "If I shut up the sky so that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people;

7:14 if my people, who are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

7:15 Now my eyes shall be open, and my ears attentive, to the prayer that is made in this place.

7:16 For now have I chosen and made this house holy, that my name may be there forever; and my eyes and my heart shall be there perpetually.

7:17 "As for you, if you will walk before me as David your father walked, and do according to all that I have commanded you, and will keep my statutes and my ordinances;

7:18 then I will establish the throne of your kingdom, according as I covenanted with David your father, saying, 'There shall not fail you a man to be ruler in Israel.'

7:19 But if you turn away, and forsake my statutes and my commandments which I have set before you, and shall go and serve other gods, and worship them;

7:20 then I will pluck them up by the roots out of my land which I have given them; and this house, which I have made holy for my name, I will cast out of my sight, and I will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples.

7:21 This house, which is so high, everyone who passes by it shall be astonished, and shall say, 'Why has the Lord done thus to this land, and to this house?'

7:22 They shall answer, 'Because they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, who brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, and took other gods, worshiped them, and served them. Therefore he has brought all these disasters on them.'"

8:1 It happened at the end of twenty years, in which Solomon had built the house of the Lord, and his own house,

8:2 that the cities which Huram had given to Solomon, Solomon built them, and caused the children of Israel to dwell there.

8:3 Solomon went to Hamath Zobah, and prevailed against it.

8:4 He built Tadmor in the wilderness, and all the storage cities, which he built in Hamath.

8:5 Also he built Beth Horon the upper, and Beth Horon the lower, fortified cities, with walls, gates, and bars;

8:6 and Baalath, and all the storage cities that Solomon had, and all the cities for his chariots, and the cities for his horsemen, and all that Solomon desired to build for his pleasure in Jerusalem, and in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion.

8:7 As for all the people who were left of the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, who were not of Israel;

8:8 of their children who were left after them in the land, whom the children of Israel did not consume, of them Solomon conscripted forced labor to this day.

8:9 But of the children of Israel, Solomon made no servants for his work; but they were men of war, and chief of his captains, and rulers of his chariots and of his horsemen.

8:10 These were the chief officers of king Solomon, even two-hundred fifty, who ruled over the people.

8:11 Solomon brought up the daughter of Pharaoh out of the city of David to the house that he had built for her; for he said, "My wife shall not dwell in the house of David king of Israel, because the places where the ark of the Lord has come are holy."

8:12 Then Solomon offered burnt offerings to the Lord on the altar of the Lord, which he had built before the porch,

8:13 even as the duty of every day required, offering according to the commandment of Moses, on the Sabbaths, and on the new moons, and on the set feasts, three times in the year, in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tents.

8:14 He appointed, according to the ordinance of David his father, the divisions of the priests to their service, and the Levites to their offices, to praise, and to minister before the priests, as the duty of every day required; the doorkeepers also by their divisions at every gate: for so had David the man of God commanded.

8:15 They did not depart from the commandment of the king to the priests and Levites concerning any matter, or concerning the treasures.

8:16 Now all the work of Solomon was prepared to the day of the foundation of the house of the Lord, and until it was finished. So the house of the Lord was completed.

8:17 Then went Solomon to Ezion Geber, and to Eloth, on the seashore in the land of Edom.

8:18 Huram sent him ships and servants who had knowledge of the sea by the hands of his servants; and they came with the servants of Solomon to Ophir, and fetched from there four hundred fifty talents of gold, and brought them to king Solomon.

Jas 3:1–4:17

3:1 Let not many of you be teachers, my brothers, knowing that we will receive heavier judgment.

3:2 For in many things we all stumble. If anyone does not stumble in word, the same is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body also.

3:3 Now if we put bits into the horses' mouths so that they may obey us, we guide their whole body.

3:4 Behold, the ships also, though they are so big and are driven by fierce winds, are yet guided by a very small rudder, wherever the pilot desires.

3:5 So the tongue is also a little member, and boasts great things. See how a small fire can spread to a large forest!

3:6 And the tongue is a fire. The world of iniquity among our members is the tongue, which defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature, and is set on fire by hell.

3:7 For every kind of animal, bird, creeping thing, and thing in the sea, is tamed, and has been tamed by mankind.

3:8 But nobody can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.

3:9 With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who are made in the image of God.

3:10 Out of the same mouth comes forth blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.

3:11 Does a spring send out from the same opening fresh and bitter water?

3:12 Can a fig tree, my brothers, yield olives, or a vine figs? Nor is salt water able to produce sweet.

3:13 Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by his good conduct that his deeds are done in gentleness of wisdom.

3:14 But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not boast and do not lie against the truth.

3:15 This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, sensual, and demonic.

3:16 For where jealousy and selfish ambition are, there is confusion and every evil deed.

3:17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceful, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, without hypocrisy.

3:18 Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

4:1 Where do wars and fightings among you come from? Do not they come from your pleasures that war in your members?

4:2 You lust, and do not have. You kill, covet, and cannot obtain. You fight and make war. You do not have, because you do not ask.

4:3 You ask, and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it for your pleasures.

4:4 You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

4:5 Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, "The Spirit which He made to dwell in us yearns jealously"?

4:6 But He gives more grace. Therefore it says, "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble."

4:7 Be subject therefore to God. But resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

4:8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

4:9 Lament, mourn, and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to gloom.

4:10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will exalt you.

4:11 Do not speak against one another, brothers. He who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge.

4:12 Only one is the lawgiver and judge, who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?

4:13 Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow let us go into this city, and spend a year there, trade, and make a profit."

4:14 Whereas you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. For what is your life? For you are a vapor, that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away .

4:15 For you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will both live, and do this or that."

4:16 But now you glory in your boasting. All such boasting is evil.

4:17 To him therefore who knows to do good, and does not do it, to him it is sin.

Job 2:1–10

1 Again it happened on the day when the God's sons came to present themselves before the Lord, that Satan came also among them to present himself before the Lord.

2 The Lord said to Satan, "Where have you come from?" Satan answered the Lord, and said, "From going back and forth in the earth, and from walking up and down in it."

3 The Lord said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job? For there is none like him in the earth, a blameless and an upright man, one who fears God, and turns away from evil. He still maintains his integrity, although you incited me against him, to ruin him without cause."

4 Satan answered the Lord, and said, "Skin for skin. Yes, all that a man has he will give for his life.

5 But put forth your hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will renounce you to your face."

6 The Lord said to Satan, "Behold, he is in your hand. Only spare his life."

7 So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord, and struck Job with painful sores from the sole of his foot to his head.

8 He took for himself a potsherd to scrape himself with, and he sat among the ashes.

9 Then his wife said to him, "Do you still maintain your integrity? Renounce God, and die."

10 But he said to her, "You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. What? Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?" In all this Job did not sin with his lips.